The vertiginous and suspense-filled action thriller made by the film crew that also prides itself on The Chaser, Hong-Jin’s resounding 2008 production.
In Yabian, Korean Autonomous Prefecture, a town on the China-North Korea border, Gu-Nam makes ends meet as a taxi driver. His wife has recently left him to work in South Korea. Disturbed by her lack of contact, he fears she is having an affair. To earn some money, Gu-nam takes to playing mah-jong, a card game, but this makes his life even more complicated and pathetic. One day he meets a professional hitman Myun-ga, who offers him a tempting job – a contract killing that will take him illegally across the border into South Korea with an opportunity to find his wife, but also provide a means to appease his debts. Thus Gu-nam becomes a hired liquidator. He boards the boat bound for Korea.
»The Yellow Sea directly deals with murder case, but overall, it’s a metaphorical story. The title is something that could convey the story I want to tell, and after completing the script, I went back to square one and thought, ‘the yellow sea’ should be the title. There’s no logical explanation. The title of the film is what will penetrate the film’s message.« (Na Hong-Jin)
Na Hong-Jin
Born in 1974 in South Korea. He studied at the Hanyang University at the Department of Metal Design. He also graduated from the Korean National Academy of Arts. He garnered international acclaim already with his first shorts. His feature film debut, The Chaser, premiered in Cannes in 2008, while the Warner Brothers has picked up remake rights in English.